Wednesday, October 27, 2010

As we noted earlier this year, the actual administration of a Health Savings Account can pose some interesting challenges. That's why we recommend a local expert to our own clients, and why I'm a proponent of the "you get what you pay for" school of thought.

A recent personal experience has only underscored the importance of that advice. For many years, we were covered under my spouse's group insurance, an HSA plan to which her employer also contributed. A few months ago, she left that job to pursue a dream, starting her own business (which is both exciting and terrifying). Subsequently, we switched our insurance over to my employer's plan, which is also an HSA.

The "old" group insurance plan used Chase Bank as its HSA administrator, and we could have stayed with them when we made our change. But I'm a big believer in taking my own advice, so we immediately contacted our local HSA gurus at FlexBank.

And boy, am I glad we did.

Over the course of just a few weeks, we had a number of issues come up (not the least of which was that we couldn't just start a new account in my name and transfer the money from an account in hers). Needless to say, we've had numerous phone conversations and exchanged a few emails. Throughout, the folks at FlexBank have been professional, courteous and - above all - knowledgeable about the various intricacies of our situation.

As we noted earlier this year, the actual administration of a Health Savings Account can pose some interesting challenges. That's why we recommend a local expert to our own clients, and why I'm a proponent of the "you get what you pay for" school of thought.

A recent personal experience has only underscored the importance of that advice. For many years, we were covered under my spouse's group insurance, an HSA plan to which her employer also contributed. A few months ago, she left that job to pursue a dream, starting her own business (which is both exciting and terrifying). Subsequently, we switched our insurance over to my employer's plan, which is also an HSA.

The "old" group insurance plan used Chase Bank as its HSA administrator, and we could have stayed with them when we made our change. But I'm a big believer in taking my own advice, so we immediately contacted our local HSA gurus at FlexBank.

And boy, am I glad we did.

Over the course of just a few weeks, we had a number of issues come up (not the least of which was that we couldn't just start a new account in my name and transfer the money from an account in hers). Needless to say, we've had numerous phone conversations and exchanged a few emails. Throughout, the folks at FlexBank have been professional, courteous and - above all - knowledgeable about the various intricacies of our situation.